master garion

travelled 13000 kms in 10 years??

yeah it's a bit riskier here in Auckland I think....can't park in the city without the parking wardens harassing you - they even give tickets for expired WOF/rego and pretty sure they can write tickets for non-complying plates

yeah i saw that thread. I'm surprised he lasted that long....those "D" plates are really obvious. I'm just wondering if anyone's been busted for their illegal NZ Euro plates with the ferns.

What are the chances of getting pulled up for having the replica NZ euro plates on? obviously the font's diff and no embossed hologram etc....anyone had trouble with them?

The distributor for Hero tyres is an outfit in Hamilton called "The Bling Company". They're a forum sponsor of nzhondas.com. http://theblingcompany.com/ if you register on the nzhondas forum, you can pm them directly for a price. Hero tyres are made in China but they're a subsidiary of Federal out of Taiwan. Hence why their tread designs are quite similar to Federal tyres.

so if i'm gonna lose coolant regardless, i should do 1 and 2 at the same time right, so suspension work should be done all at the same time then

Hi ppl, have a few questions: 1. Is there an easy way of replacing the expansion tank without removing fan/shroud/radiator etc. Also any tips for minimising coolant loss while doing it? 2. Is it any easier to replace upper and lower radiator hoses while doing the above? I'm guessing I'll lose most of the coolant to do the hoses? 3. Can worn tie rods cause brake shimmy and/or vibration at a certain speed? 4. My front suspension "clunks" when going over speed bumps and the rear creaks when I press down on it while stationary - do I have worn shock/strut mounts? If so, is it wise to replace just the mounts now or should I wait until I replace the shocks? Given that the car's at 158k now, the shocks must be near end of life? cheers **note: tyres are new and were balanced by the tyre shop recently, ball joints and control arm bushes were replaced in the last couple of years so rule these things out re 3 and 4**

Agree that there will always be bad drivers on the roads (we seem to have lots of them here in NZ) but what the rule change will do is to reduce driver decision making and hence a lot of the uncertainty around intersections. Under the current rule, all drivers approaching an intersection have to decide what to do - left turning driver, right turning driver, going straight driver. Under the new rule, only the right turning driver has a decision on his hands. Bad/stupid drivers don't make good decisions. Less decisions to make = safer roads hopefully?

IMO it's taken far too long for the Transport Agency to finally make the change. I can understand the reluctance - there's very little reward for this but carries quite a bit of risk. They will get blamed for any crashes as a result of ppl not understanding the rule change, but won't really get kudos if everything turns out sweet. Changing the give way rule is good not just because it will "align NZ's road rules to the rest of the world". There are very good reasons for it: 1. Tourism and education are very big sectors of the NZ economy - this means that any given time, there are tens of thousands of tourists/students plying our roads who are not familiar with the "Right Hand Turn" rule. This rule change WILL reduce accidents. 2. Some of you have commented that it doesn't matter what the rule is as long as everyone follows it. WRONG. The current rule is frequently not observed or forgotten (even by locals who have driven here all their lives). This is because it's not logical nor natural. It's like someone made a rule that you can only eat with your left hand. Sometimes ppl will use their right hands by accident. i'm sure all you readers are well-versed in the right hand turn rule but how many of you can honestly put hand to heart and say you've never made a mistake re this rule in your entire driving life? You know the one - you're halfway turning left when you see a car turning right from the opposite direction and realised you should have given way? 3. Human error causes the majority of accidents. Hence it makes sense to reduce the role of human judgment at intersections. That's why we have traffic lights at busy intersections - it turns drivers into robots who follow the light signals. Give way rules must be simple e.g. "go when clear". This is very simple - the human brain is less likely to make a mistake. The "Right Hand Turn" rule we currently have is flawed: The guy turning left is thinking about a. should i stop or go? b. are there cars in my lane who are going straight hence allowing me to make my left turn while the right turning car in the opposite direction is obstructed? c. it's all clear but why is that right turning car not turning??? i'm gonna go! The guy turning right is thinking about a. should i stop or go? b. that car's going straight, another one going straight...no wait he turned left without an indicator c. ok this one's turning left so i can go....crash!!....bastard decided to go straight cos it wasn't the left he was looking for d. ok this one's turning left but there's another going straight...wait some more e. ok this one's turning left, i'm going.....ooops, the guy behind him was going straight and got impatient and overtook the left-turning vehicle on a single lane road...nearly smacked him....phew! I could go on and on but i think you guys get the idea. The current rule forces drivers to think too much. The better drivers can handle it but for the majority of road users it's far too complex. I'm not too clued up on the statistics on this issue, but I read somewhere around 1 to 2 deaths a year can be attributed to the "right hand turn" rule. It may not seem that bad but you've gotta realise that NZ has an extremely low population density. For an extreme example, if you had a city the size of Auckland but it only had 10 drivers/cars, even if they were all blind and drunk and drove at 300km/h, you'll still probably never have an accident ever.

Cooling system overhaul for peace of mind - radiator, expansion tank, thermostat, thermostat housing, waterpump, radiator cap, upper and lower hoses (as a minimum, maybe other hoses if needed).

Thanks Glenn, i'm gonna have a fiddle based on your instructions. Yeah lube is the last resort before I have the cable replaced.

Can someone tell me how to do this? Have tried google to no avail. I've got a "sticky" accelerator pedal and I think it's the cable, so want to spray some lube down the cable from the TB end. Car's an E36 with M52 Cheers

It has never gone dead on me (yet). Wondering if it could be speed sensor related? Quite common in Hondas.

Coming to a stop today in my E36 and as the speedometer needle dropped to idle speed, all of a sudden it jumps to 60 and then back down real quick. Hasn't happened again (that I noticed). Are my eyes playing tricks on me?

Get some new tyres sooner rather than later is my advice. I regret not doing it 4 months ago and being able to drive properly through winter.

yeah the old ones were really hard, partly due to age but also because it was probably a hard compound to start with....and the new ones weren't even expensive so real happy with the purchase very likely....or just out of round?

sorry for digging up an old thread....replaced the shitstones with a brand new set of Hankook Ventus HRII today and driving out of the tyre shop was a revelation in itself. On the short drive home I have noticed the following: 1. the ride is smoother, quieter and all round comfy-er 2. the car feels more planted....it's not scary anymore to pull out of an intersection into gaps in traffic 3. the steering is way lighter - i wasn't expecting this, i thought my heavy steering was normal 4. the vibration between 90 to 110 km/h is gone 5. the shimmy when braking at motorway speed appears to have lessen or gone - have to drive more to be sure 6. i'm not slipping off bumps and pothole edges anymore - i wasn't aware i was doing this before getting the new tyres I knew my tyres were crap, i just didn't know that they were THAT crap.

is that the Gen2 kit? where did you get it from and how much?

that looks nice...pretty expensive?

the pipe's brandless but I can always use a K&N pod filter on the end. looks like the stock intake draws air from the pocket near the front of the engine bay......if the aftermarket pipe is long enough to end up in that area, it should suck the same temp air as the stock intake, right?

will it make a noticeable difference?

for E36 323i

Hey ppl, what sort of mods do you have for air intake? Any reasonably priced kits I can buy? Not really wanting to spend big bucks on afe, dinan, k&n etc. Found some brandless alum/chrome pipes with pod filters for cheap but are those any good?

I have the same problem in my E36 sedan. I think someone mentioned on here that tail light seals are a common cause. Anyone know where I can source some cheaply locally? lol genius

Hey guys, interesting thread to read to get an insight on ppl's understanding of GST. Like Mike K, I too am an accountant and deal with GST almost on a daily basis. Most of the important points have been raised by Mike K already and I want to summarise and possibly add a little of my own thoughts. In general, GST should not affect a business's profit margins. A business should only think in "net" terms, or in other words "gst-exclusive" figures. The gst you pay on your supplies are claimed back so whether it's 12.5% or 15% or 80%, your costs do not increase at all. As for sales, a business should be thinking in "net" terms as well. The GST component being simply added onto whatever net price you want to receive for your goods/services. When you're selling a service like Glenn, the increase of GST to your customers is simple to implement by updating your invoicing software which then automatically adds on 15% instead of 12.5%. You're not likely to lose customers as a result. But in Jono's example of increasing a tyre price from 199 to 209, all I can say is that your competitors will all have to return 15% GST on their goods sold. In simple terms, if every seller maintained their margins, then prices will increase exactly 2.22% across the economy. Some sellers will increase their prices and some will not. That's the nature of business competition - some businesses are more efficient and have lower cost structures, some businesses pay more for the same good compared to others etc. Prices can fluctuate for a million different reasons. If perfect competition existed, then a specific tyre will cost exactly the same regardless of who you buy it from e.g. if the RE001 in 215/45/17 was $250 in one shop, it would be $250 in any other shop. But we know that's not true. In fact, the variation in prices is far greater than potential increase of 2.22% caused by GST. But it's safe to say that as an end consumer, the increase of GST WILL make things more expensive on average for you. Whether you will notice is a different matter.